“The Catalan independence movement is not terrorism,” Pedro Sánchez stated forcefully, yesterday from Brussels, at the end of the European Council meeting.
A resounding statement from the President of the Government, which was very well received by Junts per Catalunya and which opens the door to redirect the processing of the Amnesty law, which was derailed last Tuesday after Carles Puigdemont’s party voted against it. in the plenary session of the Congress of Deputies to try to guarantee criminal oblivion for all those prosecuted by the process in the face of the new accusations of terrorism brought forward by Judge Manuel García-Castellón.
Sources close to the negotiation tell La Vanguardia that the Government and Junts are already exploring new avenues to be able to unblock the Amnesty law. The firm statement made yesterday by Sánchez would be framed in this new framework. The solution to the disagreement between the socialists and the post-convergents could happen because the Amnesty bill maintains its current wording, at most with some technical incorporation that is agreed upon in the negotiation that is now reopened in the Justice commission of Congress. And then a reform of the Penal Code related to terrorist crimes will be addressed, among other legislative revisions. A proposal that has already been put forward by Sumar’s negotiator, Jaume Asens, and that could unblock the processing and subsequent approval of a key rule for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez and for the course of the still newborn legislature.
“As everyone knows, the Catalan independence movement is not terrorism,” Sánchez stressed yesterday, replying to the criteria of Judge García-Castellón and the political offensive deployed by the right, to defend the wording of the Amnesty bill that reached the plenary session of Congress last Tuesday and that could not prosper due to the contrary vote of Junts, so now they will try to agree again in the Justice commission.
The President of the Government thus defended that with this bill in its current terms, without the changes that Junts demanded to incorporate, “all Catalan independentists will be amnestied, because they are not terrorists.” “I am convinced, and in the end the courts are going to conclude it,” said Sánchez.
The head of the Executive thus defended the position established by the PSOE, by ensuring that with the wording of the norm “that we have right now”, and that is still in the parliamentary process of Congress, “the independence movement, which I do not consider terrorism, “He is going to be amnestied.”
“Therefore, we will be able to overcome all the judicial cases and the judicial consequences of the errors that they also committed,” Sánchez argued, in reference to the independence movement. In any case, the president called for the agreement to form Puigdemont: “The time has come to take the step.”
The Chief Executive assured that all the work carried out so far to articulate this law managed to provide it with three very relevant characteristics. “It is a brave law, because it places its main objective in the total reunion between Catalans, and also between Catalans and their Spanish compatriots as a whole,” he stressed. “It is a restorative law,” he added, as the second of its qualities. “And it is a constitutional law,” he stressed. “The fundamental objective is for Congress to come out like this: just as brave, without a doubt restorative and with the guarantees and legal security so that it can be applied,” he assured. That is, without it being able to later be overturned by the Constitutional Court or by the European bodies to which it will be appealed by the right. “That is the Government’s position,” the president concluded.
Sánchez refused to analyze the negotiations with Junts in terms of who gives more or less. “In the end we all gave in,” he acknowledged.
And now? “The key is to maintain temperance and firmness. Temperance in terms of containment to try to reach an agreement,” she confided. “And also the firmness of knowing that everything we have advanced so far, even for this political party that has voted four times in favor of this Amnesty law proposal – he indicated, referring to Junts – is sufficiently rigorous and solid to achieve the objective that we had set for ourselves, which is to end up surpassing the judicial horizon caused by 2017.”
“The Amnesty law is the definitive step, which has a broad consensus in the society that has most directly suffered the territorial crisis of 2017, which is Catalan society. Whatever they vote for, the majority of Catalan society is prepared for this total reunion,” Sánchez stressed. “The total normalization of Catalonia will not come overnight, but my will to normalize the situation in Catalonia is total,” she said.
